Nintendo dominates Christmas developer chart

We’ve just updated our exclusive monthly developer chart, provided by Chart-Track, showing how the world’s software companies fared during December and the all-important Christmas period at UK retail.

While Call of Duty 4 may have been the top selling game at Christmas in the UK, it’s Nintendo that takes our top developer crown, still carried by the overwhelming success of its two Brain Training titles and other wide-appeal titles such as Wii Play and Super Mario Galaxy.

That’s not to say that Infinity Ward hasn’t accomplished great things, however: the studio comes in at number three in our chart, dropping only a single place since November which, given that it only has one title on the market compared to Nintendo’s huge array of titles, is a remarkable achievement.

Also riding high in our chart is Ubisoft Montreal, only dropping a single place from November thanks to continued strong sales of Assassin’s Creed, while Sega jump 11 places to fifth position on the back of the popularity of Mario/Sonic crossover Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Interestingly this month’s chart shows no new entries in the top twenty, suggesting that those developers faring well in the past few months are those that clean up at Christmas too, rather than any new contenders appearing at the last minute.

Highest climber of the month is Capcom, which slides into the chart at number 19, it’s 35-place jump backed by the success of anticipated Wii shooter Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Other notable climbers include Kane & Lynch developer IO Interactive and Nintendo stablemates Hudson, which continues to benefit from strong Mario Party 8 sales.